The institutions and customs of this people were established over the whole island, and were so deeply rooted in the soil that their remnants to this day present the greatest obstacles to the settlement of the land question according to the English model, and on the principles of political economy, which run directly counter to Irish instincts.

It is truly wonderful how distinctly the present descendants of this race preserve the leading features of their primitive character.

In France and England the Celtic character was moulded by the power and discipline of the Roman Empire.

To Ireland this modifying influence never extended; and we find the Ulster chiefs who fought for their territories with English viceroys 280 years ago very little different from the men who followed Brennus to the sack of Home, and encountered the legions of Julius Caesar on the plains of Gaul.
Mr.Prendergast observes, in the introduction to his 'Cromwellian Settlement' that when the companions of Strongbow landed in the reign of Henry II.

they found a country such as Caesar had found in Gaul 1200 years before.